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UPDV Updated Bible Version

Matthew Chapter 6 — The Choosing of the Twelve and the Sermon on the Plain

Overview

UPDV chapter 6 is the most consequential editorial decision in the entire reconstruction of Matthew. The compiler of the canonical Gospel took a relatively compact Q sermon — preserved in Luke 6:20-38 as the Sermon on the Plain — and expanded it into the massive Sermon on the Mount (canonical Matthew 5-7), the longest continuous teaching block in the New Testament. He added his own theological framework (the antitheses, the preamble about the Law), relocated Q sayings from their scattered original contexts, inserted M material with no parallels, and created the iconic mountain setting. The UPDV strips this editorial architecture and restores the Q sermon to something closer to its original form.

The chapter opens with the choosing of the Twelve (6:1-4) and the setting of the sermon (6:5), both following Luke's narrative framework. Then come the Beatitudes and Woes (6:6-14), the love-your-enemies teaching (6:15-26), and the teaching on judgment and generosity (6:27-28) — all in Luke's form and sequence.

The Choosing of the Twelve (6:1-4)

"And it came to pass in these days, that he went out into the mountain to pray; and he continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples; and he chose from them twelve." This narrative framework comes from Luke 6:12-13, where the choosing of the Twelve takes place on a mountain immediately before the sermon. In the canonical Gospel, the compiler relocated the apostle list to his Mission Discourse (Matt 10:2-4), detaching it from the sermon setting entirely. The UPDV restores the Lukan sequence: mountain prayer, choosing the Twelve, descent, sermon.

The apostle list itself (6:3-4) uses the compiler's text — his version of the twelve names with his characteristic pairings and identifications, including "Matthew the publican" and "Thaddaeus" (where Luke has "Judas son of James"). Following the two-level rule established in chapter 4: where the compiler included material, the UPDV uses his text; the narrative framework that he rearranged is restored from the parallel tradition.

The Setting: A Level Place (6:5)

"And he came down with them, and stood on a level place with a great multitude of his disciples and the people who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases." This is Luke 6:17, and it directly contradicts the compiler's famous setting at canonical Matthew 5:1 — "he went up into the mountain." Many scholars, including Davies and Allison, recognize the mountain setting as serving the compiler's Moses typology: just as Moses ascended Sinai to deliver the Law, Jesus ascends the mountain to deliver the new Law. Davies and Allison trace this mountain theology through the compiler's editorial work (4:8, 5:1, 15:29, 17:1, 28:16). The UPDV follows Luke's "level place" because the mountain setting is part of the compiler's editorial framework, not the underlying Q tradition.

The Beatitudes (6:6-10) and Woes (6:11-14)

The Beatitudes in UPDV chapter 6 are Luke's version — four blessings in the second person ("Blessed are you poor") followed by four corresponding woes ("Woe to you who are rich"). This is dramatically different from the canonical Matthew's nine Beatitudes in the third person ("Blessed are the poor in spirit").

Davies and Allison's analysis of the Beatitudes is among the most detailed in the entire commentary, and it strongly supports the UPDV's decision. They identify three stages in the tradition's development. The earliest stage contained three core blessings — the poor, the hungry, the mourning — which may go back to Jesus himself as eschatological promises rooted in Isaiah 61. The second stage added the fourth beatitude about persecution (Matt 5:11-12 / Luke 6:22-23), reflecting the early church's experience. The third stage is the compiler's editorial expansion.

The key question is whether Matthew's qualifications — "poor in spirit," "hunger and thirst after righteousness" — are original or editorial. Davies and Allison give four reasons for concluding "in spirit" is the compiler's addition: (1) it disrupts the parallelism with the other beatitudes, (2) Matthew 11:5 refers to the poor without qualification when quoting Isaiah 61, (3) Luke's corresponding woe addresses the unqualified "rich," implying the beatitude addressed the unqualified "poor," and (4) adding explanatory phrases is a documented Matthean editorial habit.

The same logic applies to "hunger and thirst after righteousness" — the qualifier breaks the alliteration pattern (πεινῶντες / πενθοῦντες / πραεῖς / πτωχοί) and the accusative construction after both verbs is awkward Greek.

Beyond these qualifications, the compiler added four entirely new beatitudes to create his signature three-by-three pattern: the meek (5:5, based on Psalm 37:11), the merciful (5:7), the pure in heart (5:8, from Psalm 24:3-4), and the peacemakers (5:9). Davies and Allison identify all four as "Qmt additions" — material the compiler or his tradition added to the Q source. The ninth beatitude (5:10, "persecuted for righteousness") is "purely editorial" — Davies and Allison state: "All signs, including word statistics, betray a redactional genesis." It exists solely to round out the three-by-three architecture.

The Woes (6:11-14) present the reverse case: Luke has them, Matthew does not. If Q contained both blessings and woes — as most scholars believe, since the pairing is a standard prophetic form — then the compiler chose to delete the woes, probably because they did not fit his Sermon on the Mount as a discourse of instruction rather than prophetic proclamation. The UPDV retains them.

Love Your Enemies (6:15-26)

"But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who despitefully use you." This teaching block (UPDV 6:15-26) follows Luke 6:27-36 and represents the core ethical teaching of the Q sermon.

In the canonical Gospel, the compiler reshaped this material into his sixth antithesis (Matt 5:43-48), imposing the "You have heard that it was said... but I say to you" framework that structures the entire second half of the Sermon on the Mount. Davies and Allison confirm that the antithetical form is the compiler's editorial construction — Luke's version, without the antithetical framework, is "more original" for the three Q antitheses (love enemies, turn cheek, lend expecting nothing). The underlying Q tradition consisted of direct imperatives, not the elaborate contrast between old Torah and new commandment that the compiler created.

Luke's version also preserves the original scope of the teaching more faithfully. The compiler's antithesis begins with "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy" — but "hate your enemy" is not found in the Torah, making it the compiler's editorial invention of a foil. Luke simply begins with the positive command: love your enemies. The Golden Rule appears at 6:21 in its Lukan position ("as you would that men should do to you, do to them likewise"), whereas the compiler relocated it to 7:12 as a summary conclusion for a much larger teaching block.

The section climaxes with "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful" (6:26) — Luke's form. The compiler changed this to "Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48), a much more demanding formulation that Davies and Allison consider editorial. Luke's "merciful" (οἰκτίρμων, oiktirmōn) connects to the concrete acts of compassion just described; the compiler's "perfect" (τέλειος, teleios) fits his broader theological interest in wholeness and completeness.

Judge Not and Generosity (6:27-28)

"And do not judge, and you will not be judged: and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned: release, and you will be released: give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will give into your bosom. For with what measure you mete it will be measured to you again."

This closing section follows Luke 6:37-38. The compiler expanded "judge not" into a longer discourse at canonical Matthew 7:1-5, adding the memorable speck-and-log metaphor.

A note on the material that follows in Luke's sermon (Luke 6:39-49): the UPDV does not simply delete it. Rather, these sayings are distributed to other positions in the reconstruction based on their independent attestation. The tree-and-fruit parable (Luke 6:43-45) appears at UPDV 11:18-19, placed in a context the UPDV considers more natural. The "Lord, Lord" saying and the House on the Rock (Luke 6:46-49) — universally recognized as the Q sermon's closing capstone — appear at UPDV 17:6-10. The blind-leading-the-blind (Luke 6:39) and the speck-and-log (Luke 6:41-42) are omitted (status Oc — context uncertain). The UPDV treats these as sayings that circulated independently and were gathered into Luke's sermon by Luke or a pre-Lukan editor, rather than belonging to the original Q sermon core. This is a judgment call, but it reflects the scholarly consensus that Luke's sermon, like Matthew's, underwent some editorial expansion beyond the Q original.

What the UPDV Removes from This Section

The scale of removal here is unprecedented — the entire Sermon on the Mount (canonical Matt 5:3-7:29) is replaced by the Q sermon. Key removals include:

  • Matt 5:3-10 (expanded Beatitudes): Four Qmt additions (meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers) and one purely editorial creation (persecuted for righteousness). The qualifications "in spirit" and "after righteousness" are stripped.
  • Matt 5:13-16 (salt and light): Q sayings (salt = Luke 14:34-35; lamp = Luke 11:33) that the compiler relocated from their original scattered Q contexts and gave new editorial introductions. Davies and Allison confirm the framing sentences are redactional.
  • Matt 5:17-20 (Jesus and the Law): Redactional preamble. 5:18 is the compiler's rewriting of Q (= Luke 16:17). 5:19 has no synoptic parallel. 5:20 is a redactional transition. Only 5:17 may have a traditional core, but even that has been reshaped.
  • Matt 5:21-48 (the six antitheses): The antithetical framework is the compiler's editorial creation. The formula ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη (ēkousate hoti errethē, "You have heard that it was said") is a highly idiosyncratic Matthean rhetorical device — it appears nowhere else in the New Testament or in contemporary Jewish literature as a structural formula, marking it as the compiler's own literary invention overlaid onto traditional sayings. Three antitheses have Q parallels (divorce, turn cheek, love enemies) — these appear in the UPDV in their Lukan form. Three have no Q parallels in their antithetical form (murder/anger, adultery/lust, oaths), though the oaths saying has an independent parallel in James 5:12 ("let your yes be yes and your no be no"), confirming the underlying tradition's antiquity even as the antithetical framework remains editorial.
  • Matt 6:1-18 (almsgiving, prayer, Lord's Prayer, fasting): The "cult-didache" section. The Lord's Prayer appears in Luke 11:2-4 in a different, shorter form and a different narrative context — the UPDV places it there. Luke's shorter version ("Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come...") is almost universally recognized as more primitive because liturgical texts expand over time, they do not shrink — no scribe or community would dare delete petitions from the Lord's Prayer. Matthew's longer version (adding "your will be done," "deliver us from evil") reflects the liturgical usage of the early church, a trajectory visible in the Didache (8:2), which adds a full doxology.
  • Matt 6:19-34 (treasures, eye as lamp, two masters, worry): Q sayings the compiler collected from various Lukan contexts (Luke 12:22-34, 11:34-36, 16:13). They return to those contexts in the UPDV.
  • Matt 7:1-27 (judge not expansion, pearls before swine, ask/seek/knock, narrow gate, false prophets, house on rock): A mix of Q, M, and editorial material. Q elements (ask/seek/knock = Luke 11:9-13; house on rock = Luke 6:47-49) appear in their Lukan contexts elsewhere in the UPDV.
  • Matt 7:28-29 ("when Jesus had finished these sayings"): The compiler's editorial conclusion formula, used five times in the Gospel to close each major discourse.

Davies and Allison's detailed source analysis comprehensively validates this decision. They confirm that Luke's forms are consistently more original for Q material, that the antithetical framework is editorial, that the qualifications in the Beatitudes are additions, and that the three-by-three Beatitude structure is architecturally imposed. The Sermon on the Mount is the compiler's greatest literary achievement — but it is precisely that: the compiler's achievement, not the underlying tradition.

References

  • Davies, W. D. and Dale C. Allison Jr. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. 3 vols. International Critical Commentary. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988–1997.